There are many people who would argue that New York City, intrinsically, seems to have its own personality. Its diversity, culture, and scope that come naturally with a city so large aren’t only a part of a New Yorker’s life, but seem to permeate the works and pieces by the city’s artists, writers, and musicians.

Retna - photo by Scott Beale

Woody Allen named a movie after Manhattan. Title: Manhattan.

HBO’s Bored to Death (a cheap plug from a huge fan) basically used Brooklyn as its own character.

And now Willow Smith, Will Smith’s sweet-voiced daughter, in her latest video for her new song “I am Free”, showcases New York’s less iconic yet just as beautiful sites. (And fittingly. I don’t think Will Smith’s I am Legend would have been as definitive in a barren, say, Savannah.)

In her video that shows barely any interaction between Smith and anyone else except the city itself, she pretty much leads on that she is her own self in the midst of the city while the city moves around her.

Smith is seen skating and jumping around the red, white, and blue mural by Retna on Bowery and Houston, the in-your-face mural by JR in High Line Park, and a corner on 6th Ave. near the famous Gray’s Papaya. She also makes a few stops at Washington Square Park and Central Park, while her director uses come cool camera angles to help.

And even if you don’t like listening to an 11-year-old sing about herself and cry “YOLO”, you can at least appreciate the nice spots noticed in the video.

Anything you noticed in the video we might have missed? Better yet, what else use New York City as its own character?

-Nick Gallinelli

“The defendant is a conman who befriended people in order to steal from them,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. “His scheming should remind us how susceptible we all are, even in our inner circles, to those intent on committing crimes for their own profit. I commend our excellent prosecutors and investigators for bringing this defendant to justice.”

Additionally Kovacsezics agreed to sell 13 pieces of jewelry, worth $60,475, for a friend and business associate under an agreement that he would receive a commission from the sale. Shortly after Kovacsezics accepted the jewelry, however, he ceased all contact with the friend and didn’t return the gems or give the owner money from its sale.

Shortly after these thefts, Kovacsezics fled but was found trying to leave the country on February 22, 2012.

He is charged with two counts of grand larceny in the third degree and one count of grand larceny in the second degree.

For many people, the term Due Date means expiration for library books. For Todd Phillips and Robert Downey, it means car crashes, scatology and homo-nuttiness. The plot, in which Downey plays tetchy California architect Peter Highman, awaiting the fulfillment of his wife’s pregnancy, barely uses the term’s adult natal significance; it’s strictly juvenile.

Shut your face.

Peter gets stuck with Zack Galifianakis as Ethan Tremblay, a bulbous yet effete Hollywood-bound actor he meets when flying out of Atlanta’s airport. This obnoxious odd couple is forced together on a cross-country road trip that’s actually nothing more than a desperate re-working of Martin Brest’s 1985 Midnight Run, where Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin played mismatched traveling companions. It’s also a poor imitation of John Hughes’ 1989 Planes, Trains and Automobiles, in which Steve Martin and John Candy fleshed out a similar premise, comically illustrating the tension of American male class differences.

Due Date disregards what made those films interesting. It takes a sitcom approach to male class differences and flatters the juvenile behavior that’s become the favorite, indulged subject of comedians and TV writers. Phillips developed his frat-boy, sitcom specialty in Old School, Road Trip and the aggressively foul The Hangover, an unfortunate hit that lowered audience’s perception of social and psychological behavior, reducing Brest and Hughes’ perceptions to rude, gross slapstick. Key moments include: a masturbating bulldog, always reliable Danny McBride as a crippled, angry war vet and Jamie Foxx provid-
ing racial comic relief as Peter’s black best friend.

Foxx’s scenes are never as funny as the ludicrous, unintentionally hilarious The Soloist, his maudlin brotherhood movie co-starring Downey. Phillips misses the opportunity to satirize that film’s screwed-up treatment of racial tension and middle-class guilt. Instead, Due Date goes for absurdity: with white buffoon Galifianakis as Downey’s foil, Phillips uses slob humor to sentimentalize brotherhood and infantilize manhood. Downey displays great vocal precision and physical grace in Peter’s silly exasperation with Ethan, but the supposed teamwork is off—there’s no Oscar/Felix rhythm, just annoyance.

It’s not too soon to address the Galifianakis problem: He lacks John Candy’s exuberance and John Belushi’s impish twinkle. He makes Ethan’s swishy, self-absorbed foolishness unappealing and depressing. Galifianakis acts like Phillips directs—crude and obvious. He represents the further decline of comedy in this Apatow era. Ending with a scene involving TV’s Two and a Half Men is too apt. In Due Date, maturity and intelligence have expired.
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Due Date
Directed by Todd Phillips
Runtime: 95 min.

Living safely and peaceably depends more on responsible drinking than on fat in the diet or sitting too much. And more than smoking, because alcohol can so adversely, dangerously—even criminally—affect behavior. The mayor needs his consciousness raised about this, too. And Malachy McCourt should curse this darkness he knows so much about.

Light candles by stressing the importance of learning interpersonal communication skills, including the conflict resolution kind, from toddler age on out. Share the talk, and let it be between age groups, where it’s almost non-existent—even in families and in faith, civic and political groups. Dr. King might agree that age segregation is now the most destructive apartheid.

Perhaps providentially, I just now turned on NY1 to learn the awful news of a 71-year-old man who was murdered during the robbery of a jewelry store at East 76th Street and Madison Avenue, where he worked. In a truly just and non-violent society, any such heinous taking of an innocent life would get front page, prime time coverage, and be strongly assailed by editors and columnists. But today, these terrible crimes often don’t even make the back pages, especially in the New York Times. And the recent Daily News short piece, “Older New Yorkers Are Healthier,” noted briefly that the leading cause of death among 15- to 34-year-olds is homicide. But where is the protest and concern that members of this age group are also the foremost perpetrators? Incidentally, this column’s original logo was “For a Gentle City,” because times were becoming anything but.

And surely in our society where we (especially, but not only, women) are increasingly and inordinately judged by the tone of our skin and our physical makeup, Dr. King would find such flawed values something to overcome. He might well urge the women’s movement to revive its once adamant objection to women being judged by their outward appearance, especially woman as sex object. Yes, Virginia, those activists really held such now very un-cool views.

There are all kinds of injustices, and some co-op and condo dwellers feel nobody is looking out for their housing conditions. The East Side Housing Coalition has a new program just for them which aims to provide vertical homeowners “with a unified voice to address their concerns… with leadership and advocacy training to build skills that protect their rights” within their own buildings and in government policies. For information, call 212-734-8995 or contact e.sidehousingcoalition@gmail.com.

And here’s to all city dwellers adopting Marge Ternes’ safe walking program, in which corner apartment houses share the duty of clearing ice and snow from their respective crosswalk entrances. While Ternes is renowned for her tireless and inspired direction of the Park Avenue Mall plantings, including the Christmas time memorial trees, may her safe walking Rx become the rule for corner buildings citywide. And get those nearby buildings shoveling out the often-impassable bus stops!

dewingbetter@aol.com